


Dammit, Nate—The We Work the Plan Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:19:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6338191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate takes the fall for the con in The Maltese Falcon.  Sophie is pissed.  Takes place during and after The Maltese Falcon Job, season two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dammit, Nate—The We Work the Plan Job

Takes place during and after The Maltese Falcon Job, season two

 

Dammit, Nate—The We Work the Plan Job

Bloody hell, he’s going to ruin the con if he doesn’t stop looking at her like that. He was lucky indeed that Tara had called her. Sophie had gotten there as fast as she could. By Tara’s phone call and Nate’s confession while she was in the helicopter, she knew that they were in deep trouble. She didn’t hear all he had to say, just the fact that he needed her.

His eyes were blown wide when he turned and saw that Annie Kroy was directly behind him. That bastard Kadjic was a complete idiot, thank goodness. Many of the other marks they had conned would have noticed right away that there was something definitely wrong with the way Nate was acting. He needed to work on his grifting skills.

As she walked toward him, she could tell that he wanted to jump in front of her, protect her from the guns and the bad guys. Luckily for the both of them, he barely held his character. Annie Kroy could take care of herself. Nathan Ford could not, that much was obvious.

She’d have to get him off the ship, along with whomever else had shown up with him, probably Eliot. Tara could take care of herself for the most part. Why was it the men of the team got into the most trouble? She could always count on Parker or Tara for that matter to take care of things. Hardison and Nate? Not so much. At least Eliot had his fists.

After Kadjic had taken Nate away, she’d have to figure out how to excuse herself from the group to find him. It was quite easy though. The security on board was tight when she had entered. While she was wandering around trying to find Nate, they seemed to diminish rapidly. Eliot’s work, she theorized. She had counted around a dozen or so armed men. Only at the end had she actually encountered one, and Eliot took care of him quickly.

“Sophie?” both Eliot and Hardison said in unison.

“Took you long enough. Come on.”

Of course they had to go save Nate. He was in over his head this time. They’d be lucky to escape without being arrested. Tara had told her that Sterling was on the case too, which didn’t bode well for their survival outside a prison cell.

Eliot found Nate fairly quickly. The look on Nate’s face was still priceless, but right at that moment, they really didn’t have time to deal with any of it. Locating Kadjic, they locked him inside the control room from the outside. Hardison had rendered the boat useless, so they weren’t going anywhere.

Off in the distance, the group could tell that the FBI and Sterling would get there before they could escape. Nate turned Tara loose, which was good since she really didn’t want to get her friend caught up in whatever was going to happen.

They weren’t fast enough, but Nate always had a plan. The helicopter that she had taken from the airport to get to the port as quickly as possible was their only way out. Only Sterling was faster than they had anticipated. He’d been waiting for them to take down the bad guy so he could take the credit.

Nate lagged behind them as Sterling had appeared. She was angry with the mastermind. She wanted to strangle him for his massive screw up. And she wanted to kiss him silly. He really did seem so happy to see her, genuinely happy.

Those cuffs. They should have taken them off and thrown them overboard. Nate took them and locked himself to the railing on the boat. That bloody bastard. He’d planned this, she thought. He’d save them and sacrifice himself for the team. The other three were hurt. Hardison looked betrayed. Parker looked as if she would cry at any moment. Eliot just looked as if he were sorry he couldn’t protect Nate.

To Sophie though, he looked resigned to his fate. She so wished she would have been able to pull him back from this, come at it from another angle. But this was his plan and his plan alone. No one else had contributed to it. That’s probably why it had ended up the way it had. Nate screwed up, royally.

He was too much of an arrogant bastard to ask anyone else for help except for her, when she was around. She was his rock, his guidance system to be able to pull him back when things got out of hand. This con got out of hand and then some.

Ultimately though, she was happy to see him up close and personal. Seeing him on a screen or when he came to London to try to force her to come home just made her absence feel worse. This, this made it all worth it. Until he told her to leave. They didn’t leave a man, ever. He would never have left her to Sterling’s devices.

There was no way they’d get him off that boat though. Eliot knew it too. He gestured for Sophie to follow him and would not leave unless she did. The other two had already headed off toward the helicopter, listening to Nate this once.

He received a kiss to end all kisses for all his trouble. Better than the one in Tuscany, better than waiting for that kiss in the cemetery, she relished just being close to him. Whether she’d ever be able to be close to him again was up to him. They’d break him out, go into hiding. She’d plan with the others.

After the kiss ended, Eliot led her off the ship. Getting into the helicopter, it broke her that he was not sitting next to her, flying off to somewhere unknown.

“Something’s wrong,” Parker shouted.

They all placed headsets on so each could hear.

“Something’s wrong, something’s wrong,” Parker shouted even though they could hear her now.

Eliot put a hand on Parker. Hardison was ready to hold her to make sure she wouldn’t jump out.

Sophie looked back to see that Nate had collapsed to the deck. Did Sterling hit him?

Eliot nodded to her. He knew exactly what was wrong. Hardison was busy tapping away on his cell phone.

“FBI called an ambulance. Dammit, Eliot, why did you not tell us?”

They all looked at Eliot.

“He wasn’t going to make it out of there on his own.”

Sophie swallowed.

“They shot him,” Parker cried.

“Kadjic shot him,” Eliot added so that Parker would not jump out and attempt to save Nate. “Gut wound. There was no way we could fix that, Parker. He needs to be in a hospital.”

Oh god, not again. Why didn’t he learn how to duck? A shoulder wound was one thing, a gut wound could kill him. Now she wanted to jump out of the helicopter. They were too far away, too far from Nate to do any good.

Parker was distressed, Hardison was breathing through his nose, attempting to pull himself together. Eliot held onto the both of them. He’d make sure they were safe.

“It’s my fault. My fault,” Sophie groaned as the helicopter flew away from the only thing that mattered right now. “What are we going to do?”

“Bust his ass out,” Parker interjected.

“And how’re you gonna do that, mamma? It’s Sterling.”

“We’ll figure out a way. If I have to go in myself to do it,” Eliot added.

They were a team, a team without their leader. Tears formed in her eyes now, when she finally realized that Nate was in danger, more danger than she thought. He’d have to heal before they could attempt anything. It could be months. Months before she could hold him again.

“We work the plan, Hardison. We’ll have time. There is no way we’re leaving him. Got it?”

Each of them looked at her with determination in their eyes. Nate had made a deal to save all of them. Now they had to do the saving.

 

They’d attempt to break him out, he knew. Nate would have to somehow convince his team that this was what he wanted. They couldn’t break him out. He’d serve his time, plan what he’d do after that and hope that Sophie would wait for him. That kiss had not been a mistake. Maybe it was the blood loss or the fact of the adrenaline rush leaving him, the kiss was what brought him to his knees. She was safe, for now. They all were safe because of the deal with Sterling. And he’d keep it that way until he could figure a way out of it.

 

Even months later, Sophie would play the recording over and over again, just to hear his voice. It was when he finally reached out. Since she couldn’t hear him well, she decided that she’d deal with what he was saying later. Sophie listened to it right after exiting the helicopter to face down Kadjic. Every time she listened to it after, she cried. He’d finally admitted that there was something. She’d work with that. Now they’d have to figure out how to get him out and into her arms. But for now…

_“Nate? Is that you? I can't hear you!”_

_“Yeah. No. I... I, uh... Listen, I need you to come back. Um... I need you. Uh, I need you.”_

_“No, no, no. Speak up. I'm traveling and...”_

_“Not the team. Me. For me. Not for a con. I just... Listen, I... I don't know who I am anymore, Sophie. And, ah... When, when I was chasing you and everything and we were doing cons, I knew who I was, but not anymore. As crazy as this sounds, I need you to tell me, tell me when I'm goin' too far. I mean, it just... It gets out of control and I just don't know who I am and, and you've always been my compass. And, you know, I care about you more than yo-you'll ever know, because I lo... I lo...”_

\--Direct dialogue from the episode


End file.
